The Mod Devices is a brand new approach to multi-effects unit. Saying “multi-effects” doesn’t really do this unit justice for several reasons. The effects within this device cover more than just guitars. It can be used for Bass, Violin, Acoustic Guitar, and also with Synth instruments. The Mod Devices Mod Duo is a stereo and and stereo out unit which can also be used in mono without any issues. Not only does it have lots of great effects built in it can also be used as a loop station and a recording device. For the home studio user, the device features amplifier emulation so tracking guitars with different parts and sounds has never been easier.

Effects Quality

One thing for sure is the effects sound legit. I did a blind test at home and I couldn’t tell the difference between an all analog Maxon OD808 and the same overdrive effect within the Mod Duo. Not only do the effects sound great on their own but they also sound great stacked together which is generally the Achilles heal of digital effects.

Computer Interface

The computer interface couldn’t be easier. Just hook the pedal to your computer via USB and all you have to do is load up any browser of your choice and enter a local IP address for the pedal and you’re in. (See the video below for more details of the user interface).

As soon as you drag and drop in your favorite effects to the board you’re good to go. They kept things simple by making this a dual (duo) pedal. You can have as many effects going at once as you like but you can only turn two on and off at a time via the buttons on the front of the Mod Duo. This means you can essentially have any combination of effects you like with the ability to turn only a couple off. This is perfect for people who don’t want a million buttons to click on (i.e Line 6). The big difference between the Mod Duo and a lot of other “digital pedals” is the fact this actually sounds and feels great to play. Once it is set up for you sound it’s literally set and forget. This type of simplicity is often overlooked in a lot of digital effects units.

One more great thing to point out is that you can also tweak the pedal settings via the two round controls/buttons on the top of the unit. If you want more drive or volume for example – a few clicks and you’re good to go.

The menu within the pedal took some time to get a handle on, it didn’t feel 100% intuitive compared with what I was expecting so for best results hook it up to your PC or MAC (or Linux) for the best results.

You don’t need to download any drivers or software to make this work either. The pedal is very much like a computer as you can store as many settings as you like and I believe it also has it’s own CPU to speed up the process of saving and modifying items in preview mode.

With all this in mind, you can also take the pedal online to download even more patches and software. There’s way more patches than I showed in this video available online so if this type of pedal is up your alley be sure to check it out.

The G777 dual overdrive pedal is the latest offering from Mason from Greenchild. This pedal is made in the USA and features two music channels that can be used on their own or together for extra drive, sustain, and gain.

Features

Two mechanically isolated channels

Transparent buffered input/output

Boosted power supply with 30 volts of dynamic headroom (+/- 15V)

Symmetrical soft clipping

Versatile tone stack

Unique gain and EQ topologies

Boost (Channel #2 ) with up to 18dB of non-distorted, post signal volume control

To the ear the left side of the pedal sounds very Vox like in tonality. It definitely has a class A sounding tone. It’s not based exactly on a Vox by any means but that’s the closest approximation of tone I can compare it with. The right side is more of a boost/low gain overdrive that can pretty much do anything you like in terms of EQ thanks to the Mid control. You can scoop out the mids or add them in for a fatter sound. The Tilt control adds more or less top end so between the Tilt and Mid control good things can happen. The right side of the pedal is also pretty low gain in terms of dirt too but it packs a punch.

The video above is a very detailed video of the pedal and how it sounds in all positions on the controls. The video below shows how simple it is to get a very usable sound with very little to no tweaking.

Who is this pedal for? People looking for a 2 in 1 that is different. I would say this is best suited to folks playing rock and roll or classic rock based on the voicing of the left (red) channel. Being it’s also very class A it would also work great for country pickers who are looking for that class A sound matched with a Telecaster. It will of course do blues, but I feel it would be more of a classic rock and country style pedal.

Being that the left side of the pedal has a lot of clarity means it will work great for both humbucker pickups as well as single coils. This pedal is a great addition to the Greenchild line up and it’s also made it in to my top 5 pedals of 2016. Great job Greenchild.

I’ve had a chance to test hundreds of overdrive pedals over the years. I’ve also owned and tested many dual overdrive pedals but many of them fall short for several reasons. Either they are too complicated, they feature weird and unnecessary switching, they have a noise gate that doesn’t always work, or they simply don’t sound very good stacked. I wonder sometimes if people put enough thought and real world testing goes into these dual pedals sometimes.

Take all the issues mentioned above and reverse it. The VS Audio Royal Flush pedal is a dream for folks like me who believe simple is better. The pedal features two channels which are in theory very similar to each other. The right side of the pedal is where the “off-clean” tone lives. It reminds me somewhat of a Tubescreamer without the high end roll off but with a lot less overdrive. The right side makes it very, very easy to get the off-clean tone that you can’t get usually without cranking your tube amp to 8.

The Right channel kind of takes off where channel one ends. You get a very similar tonality but with more gain. If you’re like me then you’ll probably want to start with a great clean tone and have an overdrive pedal that doesn’t re-eq your amp. You can literally get a great off-clean tone without having to modify the settings on your amp. This is one thing I can’t say for a lot of other pedals on the market.

The left channel then kicks your tone into overdrive (literally!). You’ll get more gain, more sustain, and overall a lead tone that is perfect for blues, classic rock, and also some modern rock sounds at higher gain settings.

The tone controls are musical without being shrill or weird. Trust me, you’ll get a killer tone with everything set to even 12 O’Clock on the Royal Flush overdrive and then you can shape your top end with the tone controls depending if you use humbuckers or single coils.

Overall

This a very easy to use, versatile, and great sounding dual overdrive pedal. The attention to detail in the gain staging, build quality, and overall design is amazing. This pedal is in my top 5 favorite pedals of 2016 without question.

Do good things come in small packages? In this particular case, the old saying is true. The Bright-Eye clean boost pedal from Fire-Eye Development is an essential pedal for doing any number of good things to your sound depending on your mood or requirements. There’s a few ways you can utilise the Bright-Eye:

Before another drive or fuzz pedal as a gain boost

After another drive or fuzz pedal as a volume boost while retaining the tone

The two option toggle switch can change the vibe from straight clean boost to vintage clean boost

So far, I have really only tried two volume boost pedals that I would gig with and the bright eye would be one of them. The other volume boost pedal I really love is the Maxon Dual Boost pedal which is also a two in one clean boost. The benefit of the Bright-Eye is the small footprint of the pedal. I could fit it on my pedalboard no problems at all and for those interested, I am running it after my overdrives for a volume kick. This is a great pedal from Fire-Eye Development.

The brand new (as of July 2016) Greenchild K818 ticks all the boxes in terms of functionality, tone, and design. Shane and Ric from the intheblues channel on YouTube put forward an idea to Mason at Greenchild to try his hand at a new dual pedal that featured highly sought after tones that were tried and tested for the working musician. This great combination of overdrives not only sound great on their own but they also sound amazing stacked together.

The Vintage Overdrive Channel

On the left is the vintage overdrive channel with a point of difference you’re going to love. What makes this left side of the pedal unique is the tone/voice control in the centre. What this control does is adds more presence/tops with the control to the left and adds more body and warmth with the control to the right so you can basically get this to sound like your amp with a bit of dirt or use it to transform the clean tones of your amp. The left side of the pedal was designed to be used as an off-clean tone for stacking the right side but in the end with the tweaks from Mason it became it’s own fantastic and usable vintage overdrive channel. This particular channel is more open and less gainy than a Maxon OD-820 and also has less noise floor.

The Klon-ish Overdrive Channel

If there’s one pedal that stacks well into any vintage overdrive it’s the Klon. This right side of the pedal features all the tones of the Klon KTR but improves upon it by reducing the overall noise floor of the pedal. One of the inherent problems with stacking a Klon can be the overall noise floor is raised but through some nifty designs Mason has done some improvements with the circuit and it now stacks better than ever.

This pedal has a boosted internal power supply with 30 volts of headroom (+/-15V), and accepts 9-18VDC (center negative). The k818 has been designed with a very low noise floor and maximum dynamic range in mind.

Overall

For the gigging musician or recording musician this is what you need to cut the mix. Two classic pedal designs in one with major improvements to the circuits results in an extremely usable pedal that is a blues players dream. This pedal is around the same physical width as a Klon KTR for example, but it’s slightly taller footprint. It will be a great space saving addition to anyone who is after a dual overdrive who likes classic tones from Maxon, Ibanez, and the Klon for example. Being able to stack the channels or use them on their own is also awesome. There’s no weird switching, no confusing options, and nothing to make life difficult. This pedal does exactly what it was conceived to do which is work simply, easily, and effortlessly.

The JLD MOSFET Overdrive is a breath of fresh air when in a World flooded with overdrive pedals. Not only is the build quality of the JLD top notch you also get tones that are unique which is a rare thing these days. To sum up the tone it’s very, very amp like. Imagine cranking your favorite black face up up till it starts clipping – that’s what you get. This isn’t a Fender voiced pedal by any means but for my money the overdrive it produces is better than an amp pushed to the max.

Tone: In terms of gain I would put this as a low to medium gain transparent overdrive. What this pedal does extremely well is it doesn’t change the voicing of your amp. With the pedal on you don’t loose any low end that I could notice and it doesn’t boost your mids like a Tubescreamer. That said, it feels familiar like a Tubescreamer without the rolled out highs making this much more usable for humbucker guitars. For those who play a Stratocaster and Telecaster, you’ll be able to get the chug you’ve always wanted without it getting too over the top. The JLD MOSFET Overdrive also stacks really well. I ran a Maxon OD808 in front of it at a gig and it sounded great. Due to the voicing of the JLD I’m sure it would stack in from of another pedal perfectly as well.

The JLD MOSFET Overdrive also stacks really well. I ran a Maxon OD808 in front of it at a gig and it sounded great. Due to the voicing of the JLD I’m sure it would stack in from of another pedal perfectly as well.

A striking feature of this pedal is its dynamic, which means that the drive depends directly on your picking (footprint). Lines run with less force you grant a light drive, and employing more force, the drive will be distorted and incisive.

Controls:

The three main controls take care of the volume, tone, and gain settings. The two selection toggle switch changes the pedal from “Low Gain” mode with the switch down to “High Gain” mode with the switch up. Both modes sound great and depending if it’s your only pedal in your chain you can decide which setting you like best. High gain mode with your guitar volume control down still cleans up really well so it’s win win. Another thing to mention too is if you run the gain control all the way down it will work as a true clean boost pedal.

Looks:

The JLD MOSFET Overdrive looks the business! It’s slightly larger than your regular enclosure but it definitely has a great look and feel without being over the top large. It’s roughly 10-15% larger (mostly in the width) than your regular Boss pedal for example.

Overall

This is a great pedal for the price. It sells in Brazil for $149 USD which is well worth the price. I have this hooked up to my smaller pedalboard right now along side my Maxon OD808 and it’s a pleasure to use.